This diary was supposed to have a different title. It was supposed to say, "Why I voted for John Edwards today." But yesterday changed everything.
Early voting ended in Tennessee tonight at 6pm. Not wanting to be a part of the mass hysteria of the voting public attempting to vote on touch screen machines in a metropolitan area, I decided to take advantage of the early voting at the last minute. There was actually a line waiting to vote tonight, the last 10 minutes of early voting, so I think that bodes well for Tuesday's turnout. After showing my voter ID card and waiting for a touch-screen voting machine to open, I cast my Super Tuesday ballot for Barack Obama.
Read on to find out why...
As a die-hard Edwards supporter who had said she'd stick with him until the end, I've had a rough couple of days. Monday, I was on cloud nine after I got to see Edwards live at a rally here in Nashville. Yesterday, all the hope and enthusiasm I had after leaving that event was crushed when he decided to drop out. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. The only good news coming from his announcement yesterday, as far as I'm concerned, is that he didn't say Elizabeth had taken a turn for the worse.
I thought about casting my ballot for Edwards today anyway. I figured as an early voter, it wouldn't make much of a difference because probably several other early voters would have voted for Edwards already. In fact, had I voted last week like I'd planned to do, I would have cast my vote for Edwards. But today was a bit different.
Today I read a few blog posts here and there talking about why they should continue to vote for Edwards. I understand the passion and drive and the desire to help him gain some delegates to carry to the convention. But I said I would not vote for him when he told me he no longer wanted my vote, and that's what he said yesterday when he told everyone it was time for him to step back and let history blaze its path.
I couldn't understand why he would drop out before another debate when he could have swayed some of those undecided voters. I couldn't understand why he would drop out before Super Tuesday when he could have possibly won a state or two and come in second in a few more. He'd pick up delegates and would be able to make a difference at the convention. Heck, if he did well enough in the debate and well enough on Super Tuesday, he could have even turned things around. But I suppose after the last debate, which almost everyone agreed he won, not having that debate win and positive press coverage translate into votes in South Carolina is what finally did it for him.
If it looked to him as though he'd stay at or below 20%, he figured he'd be a spoiler or possibly a kingmaker. Either way, his decision to stay in until the convention would have given either all the Obama supporters or all the Clinton supporters a reason to blame him for their loss. Whether that loss came at the convention when he delivered his delegates to the opposition, or before-hand when his sliver of delegates took away too many delegates from one candidate, allowing their opposition to pick up enough delegates before the convention, he'd be blamed.
I guess, for him, it came down to not wanting to be the asshole white guy who stood in the way of either the First Female President or the First Black President.
I had been leaning towards Obama as my second choice. I watched his speech at the 2004 convention and was bowled over. Here was an exceptional man who was going to go far...possibly as far as the White House. I have always admired Hillary Clinton and would love to elect the first female president, but I am tired of the same old politics, and feel that Obama is the only candidate left who can bring positive change to the country.
Sometimes you have to look at everything in a different light in order to see new ways to solve old problems, and I think that the Clintons are still looking at things the same way they always did, but I don't think their way of doing things will work this time around.
I looked at the latest polling information for Tennessee today. One poll had Clinton at about 43% and Obama at about 36%, but another had the race even closer. I decided I should go ahead and vote for Obama just in case my vote actually counted this time. I figured that with Edwards dropping out before Super Tuesday with his polling below 20% before in most states, Edwards wasn't likely to be a viable candidate in many states (if any) at this point, so a vote for Edwards really would have been a wasted vote as far as delegate counts go.
So I pushed the button for Barack Obama. I hope it made a difference.